


5 Things Julie Learns About Her Boys and 1 Thing They Tell Her

by lln



Series: JATP Appreciation Week 2020 [5]
Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Boys Being Boys, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, JATP Appreciation Week 2020, Luke speaks French, Sleepy Cuddles, awesome!julie, surfer!reggie, what in alex's fanny pack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-08
Updated: 2020-11-08
Packaged: 2021-03-09 06:22:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27450097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lln/pseuds/lln
Summary: What it says on the tin!
Relationships: Alex Mercer & Julie Molina & Luke Patterson & Reggie Peters
Series: JATP Appreciation Week 2020 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1997095
Comments: 10
Kudos: 238
Collections: JATP Appreciation Week





	5 Things Julie Learns About Her Boys and 1 Thing They Tell Her

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [JATP Appreciation Week](https://jatp-week.tumblr.com/) on tumblr.  
>  **DAY 5 | Write a fic focused on friendship/found family.**

**1\. Reggie can surf**  
  
Julie walked into the studio to find Luke and Alex whispering furiously to each other while glancing at Reggie every few seconds. Reggie was obliviously working on tweaking the melody to ' _Home Is Where My Horse Is_ ' hoping it would convince Luke to finally put it in their setlist rotation.  
  
"You distract him," Alex whispered, "I'll go get it."  
  
"Are you sure?"  
  
Alex nodded, "Yeah, yeah, I'll be quick. 15 minutes tops, Willie says he can get it to me by 3. It's quarter to now."  
  
"Okay, okay," Luke sighed, "Don't break it."  
  
Alex gave Luke a disappointing look before poofing out with a huff.  
  
Julie walked up behind Luke and tapped him on the shoulder, "What are you two whispering about?"  
  
"Julie!" Luke jumped at the contact and spun around, "How long have you been standing there?"  
  
Julie shrugged, "Not long, but my curiosity has peaked. What were you talking about and why can't Reggie know."  
  
"Shhh," Luke hissed, covering her mouth with his hands and glancing over to the other ghost, "It's his birthday today, we got him a present."  
  
Julie frowned as she pushed Luke's hands away, "It's Reggie's birthday? Why didn't you tell me, I feel bad I haven't got him anything."  
  
Luke waved off her concerns, "It's all good, we weren't sure if he wanted to acknowledge it so we haven't really said anything yet. But Reggie mentioned something to Alex this morning and we wanted to see if we could make it happen."  
  
"Tell me what you need me to do," Determination burned in Julie's eyes, she was going to help out.  
  
"Alex will be back soon," Luke smiled at the shorter girl, "We just got to keep Reggie busy for a few more minutes. Alex will poof outside the studio with our present and let us know when to cover Reggie's eyes."  
  
"Right," Julie nodded, she grabbed onto Luke and dragged him over to where Reggie was sitting, "Let's do this."  
  
Reggie smiled brightly when the other two sat down next to him and spent the next few minutes working on his song. Luke had to admit that the song had potential.  
  
At the 10 minute mark, Luke's head shot up when he heard Alex poof back. Alex poked his head around the door and gestured for Luke to join him outside.  
  
"Back in a sec," Luke shot to his feet and pointed to Julie, "Julie, cover his eyes, don't let him peek."  
  
Reggie frowned at Luke's order and looked to Julie for answers. But Julie gave Luke a thumbs up as he poofed to Alex and smiled back at Reggie before placing her hands over his eyes.  
  
"Don't worry," Julie spoke softly to Reggie, "It's something good."  
  
Julie's eyes widened as she watched Luke and Alex haul in a _surfboard_.  
  
_'What the hell,'_ She thought to herself as they stopped in front Reggie, huge smiles on both of their faces.  
  
Luke nodded to Julie to remove her hands. She did so, still confused with the present.  
  
"Happy birthday, dude!" Luke and Alex shouted together, as they displayed the surfboard between the two of them.  
  
Reggie's jaw dropped at the sight of the board, he jumped to his feet in excitement.  
  
"Dude," Reggie gasped, running his hands along the red pattern on the top of the board, "Where did you get this? How did you get this?"  
  
"Do you like it?" Julie asked.  
  
"Yeah, yeah, it looks gnarly. But how?" Reggie looked up at his friends, questions wanting to be answered.  
  
"To answer both questions," Alex smiled, "Willie knows a guy."  
  
"We thought you missed going out into the water, so ta da," Luke bounced on his toes.  
  
"And it's mine? Like to keep?"  
  
"Yeah dude," Alex laughed, "Willie says it's all good, he worked out a trade. So no worries."  
  
Reggie gripped the edges of the board, his eyes shining brightly, "I got to try it out, Julie," He turned to face her, board still ripped tightly in his hands, as if he was afraid it would disappear, "Can we find out what the surf is like?"  
  
"Oh yeah sure," Julie the shock slowly disappeared as she pulled out her phone and quickly googled a surf watch site, "I didn't know you surfed Reggie. Are you any good?"  
  
"Reggie's house used to be on the beachfront, before it got turned into a bike shop" Luke explained, "If he wasn't practising with us, he would be in the surf."  
  
"Burning in the sun like I don't know what," Alex smiled, "At least you won't have to worry about that now."  
  
"Yeah," Reggie distractly agreed, before mumbling to himself, "I need board shorts."  
  
"Got you sorted dude," Luke pulled out a pair of black board shorts with red piping down the side out from behind his back, "Did you think we'd leave you high and dry?"  
  
Reggie cheered, placed his board into Alex’s hands and took the board shorts from Luke's outstretched hand, "You guys are the best!"  
  
Julie's eyes widened in shock as Reggie started to change in the middle of the room. Quickly she closed her eyes and turned her back.  
  
"Reggie!" She hissed, "Don't change in front of me."  
  
"Dude," Disappointment filled Alex's voice, "Not cool."  
  
"Sorry Julie," Julie could hear the grin in Reggie's voice, "I got excited."  
  
"We could tell."  
  
Julie looked back down at her phone, "Well good news, the surf is good."  
  
"Awesome!" Julie heard Reggie poof away.  
  
She slowly turned back around and found only Luke and Alex standing in the studio with a pile of clothes on the floor.  
  
"That went well. He seemed to love it."  
  
"Dude," Luke turned to Alex and smiled, "We did good."  
  
"Totally," Alex returned the smile.  
  


* * *

  
  
**2\. The contents of Alex's fanny pack**  
  
Julie watched from the doorway as Alex searched throughout the studio for something. Clothes and books went flying as the blonde looked.  
  
"Whatcha looking for?"  
  
Alex jumped at the sound of Julie's voice. He spun around to face her, one of Luke's shirts clutched tightly in his hands.  
  
"Aren't you supposed to be at school?" Alex blinked in confusion.  
  
Julie shrugged as she walked towards the couch to sit down, "It's a half day."  
  
"Oh."  
  
"Yeah," Julie agreed, "Sooo, watcha looking for?" She patted the space next to for Alex to take.  
  
Alex sighed and flopped down next to her, “It’s stupid.”  
  
Julie frowned and grabbed his hand and squeezed it in comfort, “If it’s important to you, then it’s not stupid.”  
  
Alex took a deep breath, “Luke and Reggie thought it would be funny to hide my bag.”  
  
“Oh, your,” Julie gestured across her chest, like how Alex wore the bag, “Fanny pack?”  
  
Alex nodded sadly, “I know it’s stupid, but I don’t feel whole leaving without it.”  
  
“Why?” Julie asked softly, “Why’s it so important to you?”  
  
Alex bit his lip and twisted the bottom of his hoodie, before replying softly, “I have a, or is it had, I’m not sure,” Alex frowned in confusion, “But before all of this,” Alex gestured wildly around the studio, “I had a pretty serious nut allergy, like you eat a peanut butter sandwich next and I’m going to have to go to the hospital within the next few minutes serious. So my parents always made sure I carried an epipen around with me. I had to have it on me at all times or I couldn’t go to band practise or hang out with the guys. I know how to use it and I taught all the guys how to, even though Bobby always got squeamish at the thought of actually using it on me.” Alex rambled on, “And I know, right now, with me being a ghost and all, I don’t have any real use for it whatsoever, but I feel anxious and twitchy and my head isn’t going to quiet down unless I find it and have it in my hands.”  
  
Silence filled the studio as Alex finished speaking. Julie continued to hold Alex’s hand in comfort, while he tried to control his breathing.  
  
“Okay.”  
  
“Okay?”  
  
“Okay,” Julie smiled brightly, “I’m going help you for it and once we’ve found it we’ll get revenge on Luke and Reggie, because what they did might have been funny to them, it was kind of mean to you.”  
  
“You don’t think it’s dumb?”  
  
“Of course not,” Julie frowned, “This is a judgement-free zone Alex. You can carry around that fanny pack for as long as you want and it will be fine with me,” She stood up and pulled Alex up with her, “Now tell me where you’ve already searched. This studio isn’t that big, we’ll have it back in no time.”  
  
Alex was quiet for a moment, a searching look on his face as he looked into Julie’s eyes. He must have seen something he liked, as he quickly started to list off the places he had searched.  
  
“Thanks Julie,” Alex smiled softly as they started their search.  
  
“What are friends for?” Julie smiled back.  
  


* * *

  
  
**3\. Luke speaks french when angry**  
(I’m using google translate please, tell me if I’ve horribly butchered it wrong)  
  
“Où est mon cahier?” _(Where is my notebook?)_  
  
Julie frowned as Luke poofed into the studio, anger clearly written across his face. He stalked towards the couch where Alex and Reggie sat.  
  
“Uh, what?” Julie blinked in confusion from her place at the piano.  
  
“Alex! Où est mon cahier?” _(Alex! Where is my notebook?)_  
  
“Oh no,” Reggie gasped, his eyes widened in shock, “Luke’s speaking french,” Reggie scooted to the other end of the couch away from Alex, “Alex you’re in trouble.”  
  
“Come on dude,” Alex pleaded, having no clue what Luke was talking about, “You know we can’t understand you when you’re like this.”  
  
“Cahier, maintenant!” Luke held his hand out to Alex and shook it when Alex didn’t move. _(Notebook, now!)_  
  
“Dude please.”  
  
“J'ai cherché partout et je ne peux pas le trouver. Tu étais le dernier à l'avoir.” Luke folded his arms and began tapping his foot. _(I have searched everywhere and cannot find it. You were the last to have it.)_  
  
“Wait, _cahier_?” Julie frowned, trying to remember any of her french lessons from school, “That’s the french word for ‘notebook’ right?”  
  
Alex and Reggie shrugged at the same time.  
  
“Didn’t take a language class,” Reggie said, “Don’t have the head for it.”  
  
“I took German,” Alex replied.  
  
“Why is Luke speaking french?”  
  
Alex and Reggie frowned at each other, “Luke grew up in Vancouver until he was like 5, learnt french there, then his parents moved him here,” Alex explained.  
  
“He only really speaks french when something’s pissed him off though,” Reggie added, “If you’re right then he’s implying Alex has his lyric notebook.”  
  
“Which I don’t” Alex huffed and looked back up to Luke, “I didn’t touch your notebook Luke, I know better than that.”  
  
“Oh,” Julie gasped softly and quickly dug into her school bag, “Luke, I have it. I wanted to show Flynn some of your lyrics. Sorry I didn’t mean for you to worry.”  
  
The anger on Luke’s face instantaneously melted away and was replaced with a smile as he took back his notebook, “Thanks Julie. No harm done.”  
  
“What ‘ _no sorry Alex, didn’t mean to yell I didn’t have all my facts_ ’?” Alex squawked with a frown.  
  
“Sorry Alex,” Luke apologized with a sheepish smile, “I didn’t mean to yell, you know how I it get without my notebook.”  
  
“Yeah, yeah,” Alex rolled his eyes, “Next time aim for Reggie.”  
  
“What’d I do?”  
  
“I’m sure you’ll do something by then.”  
  


* * *

  
  
**4\. They happily share clothes**  
  
“Rise and shine boys!" Julie cheerfully called out as she entered the studio, ever since the removal of Caleb’s stamp, her boys had started to feel the need for sleep at the end of each night, like real people, "We have a big day ahead of us. Lots of things to do before our gig tomorrow night."  
  
Julie watched as Alex struggled to open his eyes and find where she was standing. He went to sit up but found himself unable to move, this was due to the fact that his bandmates had both wrapped themselves around him during the night. Reggie had his arm wrapped around Alex’s waist, with his head on the blonde’s chest. While Luke pressed his face into Alex's neck, with his hand reaching across to grip the front of Reggie’s shirt.  
  
"Well this is very cute," Julie smiled as she whipped out her phone and snapped a few dozen pictures, then sent the best ones to Flynn, "Flynn's going to love these."  
  
"What time is it?" Luke mumbled into Alex’s neck, his breath tickling his ear.  
  
“It’s nearly lunchtime.”  
  
“Noooo,” Reggie whined as he buried his head further into Alex’s chest, “It’s too early.”  
  
“It’s lunchtime,” Julie stressed, “If you guys keep on sleeping we’ll never have our setlist done. Now get up, I’ll be back in a few minutes so you can get dressed.” Julie left the studio to give her boys some privacy.  
  
It wasn’t long before Luke called her back in. Upon entering the studio, Julie was pleased to see that they had folded away the sofa bed this time and put away the blankets.  
  
“Good job boys,” Julie smiled at the trio. Only to frown a moment later at what they were wearing, “You guys get a bit mixed up?”  
  
The boys frowned and looked down at themselves, not understanding what Julie was talking about. They were dressed, why did she have a problem with that. Luke was wearing one of Reggie’s tighter red flannels and a pair of Alex’s shorts. Reggie had on Alex’s pink hoodie and a pair of Luke’s jeans. While Alex had on someone’s sweatpants and one of Luke’s sleeveless tanks, though he still had on his snapback. They were all barefoot, not that they minded, they weren’t going anywhere yet.  
  
“What’s wrong with what we’re wearing?” Luke asked with a pout.  
  
“Yeah,” Reggie agreed, “You said get dressed and we did.”  
  
“It was first to the bag, gets to pick first and these are our only clean clothes,” Alex helpfully pointed out with a smile, "We might need to do some laundry soon."  
  
“Uh, okay” Julie blinked, “I guess I’ve just never seen you wear each other’s clothes.”  
  
“We used to share clothes all the time,” Luke said, “You know, _before the whole hotdog thing_.”  
  
“Yeah,” Reggie smiled, “But we had Bobby’s in rotation too then. It’s slim pickings between the three of us.”  
  
“Well, I guess as long as you guys are comfortable,” Julie shrugged.  
  
“We are,” The trio said at the same time, causing them to burst into giggles.  
  
Julie rolled her eyes, it was going to be a long day, but hopefully a productive one.  
  


* * *

  
  
**5\. They all have matching tattoos**  
  
Julie blinked up from her lyric notebook as her boys poofed into the studio, soaked from head to toe from the rain. Julie tilted her head in confusion, she wasn’t quite sure how that worked. They didn’t notice Julie in the studio with them, as they had their backs to her.  
  
"I don't get it," Alex huffed as he shook his snapback, hoping to get rid of some of the water, "We're ghosts. How can we walk through walls and not be affected, but we get caught in a rain shower and we're soaked?"  
  
"Not a clue dude," Reggie shrugged out of his jacket, "Just another mystery of our new ghost lives."  
  
“Well I don’t like it,” Alex stripped off his soaked hoodie and dropped it to the ground with a wet splat.  
  
“We know.”  
“We know.”  
  
Julie frowned as the ghostly trio continued to remove wet articles of clothing, she tried to get their attention but the sound of the rain drowned out her pleas. It wasn’t until they were just standing in their boxer shorts that she gained their attention.  
  
“Uh guys,” Julie called out, “Please stop taking off your clothes.”  
  
The boys gasped and spun around.  
  
“Julie!” They yelled out together as they attempted to cover themselves.  
  
“What are you doing out here?” Luke asked, “You should be inside, it’s raining.”  
  
“Do you need towels? Let me get some towels.” Julie got up from the couch and went for the cupboard in the corner.  
  
“You didn’t answer my question,” Luke sounded like he was pouting.  
  
“I know,” Julie agreed, “But I’m not speaking to you until you’re covered up.”  
  
“Oh.”  
  
Julie pulled out three big fluffy towels and handed one to each of her boys. She watched as they wrapped themselves up to dry off, only to stop at Alex when she noticed a splash of colour on his ribs. Alex attempted to pull the towel from her grip, but was unsuccessful, much to his disappointment. Julie took a hold of Alex’s arm and lifted it slightly and saw a half sun design with a sketchy looking outline, with colours of red, yellow and orange sitting on his ribs.  
  
“You have a tattoo?” Julie asked Alex, not quite believing what she was seeing.  
  
“Uh, yeah,” Alex muttered still trying to get the towel as he was actually starting to feel the cold, then he gestured to the other two, “We all got one, after we got told we would be playing _The Orpheum_.  
  
“Bobby too,” Reggie supplied.  
  
“Are they all the same?”  
  
“Yeah,” Luke smiled, towel up over his head as he stretched out his ankle showing off his own tattoo, “Alex designed it, it represents _Sunset Curve_."  
  
"Where's yours, Reggie?"  
  
"Oh," Reggie opened his towel and pushed down the top of his boxers to show off his hip, "Right here."  
  
"Keep that towel on and your boxers up Reggie," Julie shook her head, "Did they hurt?"  
  
The trio looked at each over Julie's head as she looked between her boy's tattoos admiring the artwork, before unanimously deciding to protect their past selves dignity, as they had all hurt quite a lot, but Julie didn't need to know that.  
  
"Nope."  
"Nah."  
"Didn't feel a thing."  
  
"Well," Julie smiled, "They look pretty cool."  
  
"Thanks Julie." She received three bright smiles in return.  
  


* * *

  
  
**+1. They knew her mother!**  
  
Julie sat in her room, going through one of her many photo albums, looking for the perfect picture.  
  
"Whatcha doing?" Julie jumped at the sound of Luke's voice right in her ear.  
  
"Don't do that," She turned around smacked him with a pillow, sending the ghost tumbling off the bed, to the amusement of his friends, "You know better then to sneak up on me."  
  
"Sorry Julie," Luke pouted from his position on the floor, "I was just curious."  
  
Reggie and Alex snorted at the spectacle that was their lead singer.  
  
"Yeah," Julie huffed, "Make some noise next time."  
  
A moment passed in silence before Luke broke.  
  
"Soooo," Luke got up onto his knees, put an elbow on the edge of the bed and rested his chin on his palm, "Whatcha looking for?"  
  
Julie looked down at the photo album, "Carlos is doing a family tree-slash-timeline thing for school, he wants to use a couple of my pictures of mamá. One of when she was younger and one from last year just before she got sick. You know, different stages of life."  
  
"Oh," Reggie sat himself down next to Julie, "Sounds interesting, I don't think we've seen any pictures of your mum. Other than that one Alex grabbed and she wasn't really looking at the camera."  
  
"Yeah, you wouldn't have,” Julie sighed, “Tía thought it would be best if we took them down for a little bit, you know while we mourned."  
  
The boys all nodded, understanding the touchy subject.  
  
“Wait, is that her?” Alex lent over and pointed to a photograph of a woman singing into a microphone, with a three piece all girl band behind her, “She looks familiar,” He mumbled softly to himself.  
  
“Yeah,” Julie smiled, “It’s her and her band, _Rose and the Petal Pushers_. That’s how her and dad meet, he was the photographer for one of her gigs. Love at first sight or so he says.”  
  
“Didn't we know a Rose?” Reggie asked with a frowned, thinking back, “I swear we did.”  
  
“I don’t think we do.” Luke leant over the photo album to see the picture. “Aww Julie you look just like her. Was her band any good?”  
  
“Do you know how many people are called Rose?” Alex cut in, “We could have met someone called that at any of the bars or theaters we played at.”  
  
“Thanks Luke,” Julie smiled, “Mamá said she recorded a few demos, but never really got far with her bands, they never hit it big but she had tons of fun. It was more of a hobby thing for her, she was more interested in the songwriting aspect more. It worked well for her when she was between jobs. She waitressed mostly and wrote some songs for other musicians. I think she even helped Trevor write something for one of his later albums. Here,” Julie pulled out one of the photos and passed it to Luke, it showed a young woman with Julie’s hair, wearing a sparkling top and a similar leather vest that Julie had worn with they had performed _Finally Free_ at that cafe, “This is mamá when she worked at _The Orpheum_ , she said she got to see a lot of cool bands play there.”  
  
Luke’s eyes widened in shock as he looked down at the photo, “Oh no,” He whispered to himself, recognising the woman.  
  
“That’s it, I remember,” Reggie clicked his fingers, his eyes lighting up, “At _The Orpheum_ , that waitress who listened to our soundcheck and said we sounded good. She was called Rose, she was cute.”  
  
Alex rolled his eyes, “I also remember you, Luke and Bobby all trying to hit on her.”  
  
“Uh guys,” Luke grabbed at Reggie’s arm, “I think we are connected to Julie, after all.”  
  
“What do you mean?” Reggie was confused, Luke wasn’t making sense.  
  
Luke flipped the photos around to show the others, “This is Julie’s mum, does she look familiar?”  
  
Reggie and Alex lent in close to look at the photo, recognition hit them hard and Reggie’s jaw dropped, “I hit on Julie’s mum!” He squeaked.  
  
“What?!” Julie looked at Reggie in shock, “What do you mean by that?”  
  
“You hit on Julie’s mum,” Reggie pointed at Luke, as his voice went higher.  
  
Julie swung around to face Luke, “What?!”  
  
“Bobby hit on Julie’s mum,” Was the last high pitched thing Julie heard from Reggie before he poofed out of her room in a hurry.  
  
“Luke?” Julie asked her brows furrowed in confusion, but Luke couldn’t give her an answer as he too poofed out, his face bright red in embarrassment.  
  
“Alex?”  
  
“If it makes you feel any better, they all struck out with her,” Alex smiled sheepishly with a shrug.  
  
“I’m not sure how it makes me feel, to be honest.”  
  
“Fair enough,” Alex nodded and sat down next to her on the bed, “Want me to help you pick out a photo for Carlos?”  
  
Julie blinked at Alex’s change of subject, “Sure.”  
  
“Cool,” Alex smiled, “Luke was right, you do really look like her.”  
  
Julie returned Alex’s smile, “Thanks Alex.”  
  
**The End**

**Author's Note:**

> I'm late posting because work is kicking my ass at the moment, so whoops!
> 
> Like usual let me know what you think <3 kudos and comments keep me going!
> 
> If you want to, come talk to me on my **[tumblr](https://llnwritings.tumblr.com/)** or I take requests.


End file.
